Improvement in grate-bars



H. W. .A DAMS.

Grate-Bars. No. 146,501. Patentedlah-ZO.1.874.

All gym/madman: w. M mmnuzs P500555) HENRY W. ADAMS, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN GRATE-BARS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 146,591, dated January 20, 1874; application filed November 29, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY W. ADAMS, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented an Improvement in Grate-Bars, of which the following is a specification:

The object of my invention is to increase the area of the air-spaces of a fire-grate in contact with the burning fuel without correspondingly increasing the area of the base of said grate; or, in other words, to make the airspaces of the upper surface of said grate which are in contact with the burning fuel vastly more extended in area than the airspaces in the under side of said grate. My design is to admit through the said grate, and distribute through the burning fuel, a very much larger supply of air than can be done in any other form of grate.

The following figures and letters more fully illustrate the nature of my invention, and the method of constructing and using it.

Figure 1 is a perspective View of my im provement in grate-bars. Fig. 2 is a lougitudinal section of the same. These are-rock ing grates.

I wish it to be understood at the outset that my invention can be applied to any form of grate-bars now in use; that my improved grates occupy the same length and width of fire-box which any other grates occupy for a givensized boiler or furnace, but more than duplicate the air-spaces in contact with the burning fuel. The bottom sides of the grate need not vary from any grates now in use;

but the top sides or surfaces are provided with elevated arcs of circles, with alternate .thick, five inches across the diameter of base,

measuring from outside to outside, at the point where they rest on their foundations, three inches across the inside,hollow diameter, three inches from this latter line up to the under side of the arches, and ten inches around the external surfaces. Between these arches I leave air-spaces one inch and a quarter wide, more or less. This will more than duplicate the air-spaces in contact with the burning fuel over the area of the air-spaces through any form of flat grate-bars placed as near together as the foundations on which my arches rest. As the fuel and ashes rest on the larger external air-spaces and partially close them up, it follows that sufficient air can pass up through the smaller openings in the base to feed the larger ones in contact with the fuel. The air heated under the arches insinuates itself laterally and perpendicularly through the external air-openings into the fuel in a divided and extended manner, and promotes a much more perfect combustion of fuel, gases, and smoke. The eifect is just the same as increasing the area of the common grates lengthwise, or in width, or both, to a corresponding area of air-spaces. A much smaller fire-box, with my improved grates, is practical for any given-sized boiler or furnace. This explanation of my invention applies to the form of ble. It occupies the same length and width of space as the one now in use in the said firebox, and shakes or rocks in the same manner. The middle bar of the one now in common use in the said firebox, and which gives two air-spaces between it and the two outside bars, is removed in my improved grate-bar,

and the whole area below the arches is employed for an air-space, while the arches, one inch wide and thick, more or less, are cast across from one outside foundation over to the other, at right angles to them, and leaving alternate air-spaces between them of one inch and a quarter in width, more or less. It will be seen that the front end of this form of grate bar is beveled down from the middle to the TENT. OFFICE.

end, and an air-space left beyond the'last arch. Without this arrangement the arches of that end will meltoff, as the heat is greater in the front end of a locomotive fire-box than in its rear, and as the drop-grate in the front end allows a bed" of hot fuel to impinge against the last elevated arch. But thorough trial has proved that the form shown in. Fig. 1 stands the heat Without melting.

The following letters represent parts of my grate-bars, as shown in the figures aforesaid.

A shows the foundations on which my arches rest. These foundations are precisely similar to any of the common forms of straight gratebars. B represents the arches as described. 0 shows the air-spaces between them. D D are the rocking journals in common use, restin g on pins in the ordinary manner. E is the rocking arm in common use. F is the beveled slant of the locomotive-bar from its middle part to its front end. G G are the two airsurfaces of straight grate-bars A, forming" Vertical air-spaces between the alternate arches, substantially in the manner and for the purposes shown and described.

HENRY \V. ADAMS. lVitnesses ISAAC R. OAKFORD, J AS. W. SWAIN. 

